Brass Bands England has been awarded a huge 46% increase in its annual funding following the release of the latest National Portfolio funding awards covering the financial years 2018/19 to 2021/2022.

Winner and loser

The four year funding increase is a huge success for the organisation based in Barnsley — one that will see their annual income from Arts Council England increase from £142,000 per annum to £207,000 per annum — a total investment of £828,000 over the four year period.

However, it was also revealed that the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain will lose 48% of its funding income over the same period of time. Its annual funding award of £118,140 will drop to £61,054 per year — a loss of nearly a quarter of a million pounds from 2018/19 to 2021/2022.

However, as a National Youth Music Organisation (NYMOs) for the period 2015-2018, these were jointly funded by Department of Education and Arts Council England. For 2018-2022, NYMOs will receive their Arts Council England allocation as National Portfolio funding (as above).

NYMOs will receive their Department for Education funding via a restricted separate grant.

New role

From April 2018 Brass Bands England will now become National Portfolio funded through the Arts Council England as a Sector Support Organisation — a new category which includes organisations that have previously been funded as National Portfolio Organisations or through other Arts Council investment.

These organisations are tasked with playing a vital role in supporting the cultural sector, although they will not themselves be directly producing or delivering art or culture.

In today's announcement Arts Council England stated that it expects "…these organisations to underpin our cultural infrastructure, to drive progress and change, and to provide valuable support for the sector.

They will offer economies of scale, access to expertise and innovation, sector leadership and artform and business development."

It added: "Brass Bands England was a new entrant to the portfolio last time around, and has an uplift to develop its range and reach of support for amateur brass bands across the country."

Delighted

Brass Bands England Chairman Mike Kilroy was understandably delighted when he spoke to 4BR.

"I really had butterflies in my stomach this morning,"he confessed. "However, I believe this is fantastic news for the banding movement in England — and can have long term benefits at all levels.

We will now plan over the next seven months to implement our strategies ready for launch in April 2018, with an emphasis on band governance through rolling out schemes such as Bandsafe, music and player development programmes and helping to improve the media and PR profiles of bands."

Listening

Mike added that the basis for the successful application certainly came from the BBE Brass Band Conference held in Manchester last year, as well as from listening to the critical analysis of what people thought BBE was doing wrong and research from the University of Sheffield.

"That was very important,"he said "The Conference was a huge success and came up with so many great ideas to build on, whilst listening to informed criticism and identifying the challenges that therefore needed to be addressed was equally important.

The extra key though came with the study by the University in the health and well being benefits of community based brass banding. This came up with the type of factual information and narrative line that really strengthened our case.

Everyone has played a role in what we have achieved with this successful funding award. Now comes the opportunity to work together to build on it further."

Everyone has played a role in what we have achieved with this successful funding award. Now comes the opportunity to work together to build on it furtherBBE Chairman, Mike Kilroy

Various models

Mike revealed that over the next few months, various models of BBE structure — including the role of a Chief Executive will be explored with BBE working with interested groups to discuss progress.

Meanwhile, Arts Council England Chief Executive, Darren Henley, stated that the new National portfolio for 2018-22 has supported "...a fresh, ambitious and wide-ranging group of organisations that we believe will bring new energy to the arts and cultural sector, while reaching more people in more places than ever before."

£1.6 billion

831 organisations will receive a total of £1.6 billion over four years for 844 projects, with it being announced that £170 million more will be invested outside London with significantly increased investment in places like Reading, Bradford, Plymouth, Northumberland and Stoke.

Other big musical winners included the Birmingham Opera Company, although other major orchestras such as the City of Birmingham, London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic and London Philharmonic saw no increase in their funding.